Religious
See also: Religious institute (Catholic)Religious—who can be either lay people or clergy—are members of religious institutes, societies in which the members take public vows and live a fraternal life in common. This is a form of consecrated life distinct from other forms, such as that of secular institutes. It is distinct also from forms that do not involve membership of an institute, such as that of consecrated hermits, that of consecrated virgins, and other forms whose approval is reserved to the Holy See.
Religious institutes have historically been subdivided into the categories of orders and congregations.
Read more about this topic: Catholic Church Hierarchy
Famous quotes containing the word religious:
“... these great improvements of modern times are blessings or curses on us, just in the same ratio as the mental, moral, and religious rule over the animal; or the animal propensities of our nature predominate over the intellectual and moral. The spider elaborates poison from the same flower, in which the bee finds materials out of which she manufactures honey.”
—Harriot K. Hunt (1805–1875)
“A few years ago, the liberal churches complained that the Calvinistic church denied to them the name of Christian. I think the complaint was confession; a religious church would not complain.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down.... Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)